Chapter 82. Canola Flowers – Part 1 – Please Don’t Shake Me 

There was something I had always wanted to try if I ever got my hands on a big field.

A field of canola flowers.

The bright yellow of canola flowers gives me so much energy. A blue sky and canola flowers. So many canola flowers.

A picture of happiness.

Also, personally, I really like the story of Ninomiya Sontoku — you know, the model for the Kinjiro statue — My favorite is the story about him planting canola flowers on the edge of a rice field, extracting their oil, and using it for lighting while studying at night.

I’ve always wanted to try that.

And now… I actually have a large field. If I can get Mimi, Luna, and Kirara to help me…

That’s the plan.

Now, here’s the issue: I once bought seeds of a type of canola that’s grown for its edible flower buds, but if I let them grow and press them, can I actually get oil out of them? I feel like I can, but still…

“Mimi, I have a favor to ask.”

I ask her seriously.

“What is it?” she asks.

“I want to make a canola field. Can you till the soil for that?”

Mimi’s eyes sparkle.

“Leave it to me!”

She gets super motivated.

In no time, the rows for the canola field were completed. Mimi’s tiller’s power is amazing. I wonder how many tens of thousands of horsepower that is.

For now, I buy 100 yen worth of seeds and then kept buying more in batches with 1,000 yen repeat. I sowed them in a section Mimi tilled for me.

“Luna, I need your help.”

I ask Luna, who just so happens to be visiting Of course, Jude-san came along too. Luna wanted to come alone, but Jude didn’t seem to be the type to allow that.

“Grow big!”

As luna said this with a smile, the seeds sprout and grow rapidly. It was an unbelievable sight, no matter how many times I saw it. 

Even Kaen-san looked stunned when she saw it. “Isn’t that a bit too out of the ordinary…?” they said.

Even from an elf’s perspective, it seems a bit abnormal. That kind of power without the boost of the sacred tree. It’s generally best to keep it hidden. Right? Luna is so talented, it’s dangerously tempting for someone to kidnap her.

“My turn!”

Kirara joins in with Luna’s green magic.

And so, before I knew it, the flowers were blooming and bearing seeds.

It’s honestly such a cheat. I didn’t even have a chance to add fertilize to the plants. I’d only mixed in a bit as a base fertilizer.

Kirara harvested the seeds that had formed.

Now that the seeds have grown, this is where the real work begins.

We sowed seeds across the entire field that Mimi tilled. While I was sowing, Mimi cleaned up the remnants of the canola plants we had taken seeds from and prepped the area again.

Now, the entire field is ready to be a canola flower paradise.

The goal is to harvest seeds, but I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the flowers at this speed, so the second time I asked Luna and Kirara to go a bit easier on the growth speed this time.

Thanks to that, we got to enjoy a full field of blooming canola flowers.

“it’s beautiful,”

Jude-san narrowed his eyes as a gentle breeze blew through, ruffling his bangs.

Yeah, it really is beautiful.

The yellow flowers swayed in the wind. The entire field was yellow — creating a dreamlike scene. I crouched down slightly and looked up at the blue sky through the canola flowers — it was so pretty.

The Haiku and poems I learned in Japanese class came to mind. I even felt like singing.

Oh! Let’s have a picnic. I think any meal enjoyed outdoors is a picnic.

“Luna, shall we eat outside today.”

When I said that—

“Yeah!”

—she replied with a bright smile.

We had Jude-san carry out a blue tarp and some wooden crates from the shed, and we set everything up.

Since I knew Luna would be coming today, I had prepared some light snacks.

The ones I had at Larry-san’s place were so delicious I asked Ann-san for the recipe and made them myself. 

The main dish is a sandwich made with whole wheat bread, filled with cheese, ham, and thinly sliced onions.

The whole wheat bread is even chewier than it was back then, and has become really delicious. I used margarine (bought with another 1,000-yen repeat) inspired by some amazing bread I had eaten in Kyoto.

I also baked scones. They’re a bit crumbly, but I love scones. I slather them with plenty of plum jam and eat them — so good!

I found a Dutch oven-style pot with a thick iron lid, so I tried baking in it — and it turned out pretty well. Heavy lids are awesome.

Unfortunately, clotted cream is expensive…

So please make do with some stiffly whipped heavy cream.

Of course, I also picked some canola buds before they bloomed. I like to quickly boil them and eat them with bonito flakes, sesame, and soy sauce. Canola buds really taste like spring — they’re wonderful.

“Saki-san, this is so good!”

Luna sat on the wooden box, kicking her legs.

Hmm, that’s a good kick. If she’s doing that, she must genuinely think it’s delicious.　

I tried the food myself too, and I think it turned out really well. The sliced onions really shine. The ham and cheese are great, but the onion’s slight pungency adds something really special.

Also, the margarine was a great choice! I don’t know what it is, but the saltiness and the fat somehow just make everything come together. Amazing.

“I love it!”

Mimi’s sudden confession made me happy too.

Kirara has a serious look on her face as she struggles with the scones, which are falling apart. Even without her saying anything, I could tell it was delicious — it made me smile.

I opened my mouth wide to welcome a scone loaded with plum jam and whipped cream, but it ended up on the corner of my mouth. Oh no, I spilled it.

Eating something that spills easily is a struggle. I think those scones are probably pretty fresh too. It can’t be helped.

Jude-san, as always, displayed his high-speed eating technique. It was so fast I wondered if he was even chewing it.

His lips curled up slightly in between bites, so I think he was enjoying it.

As for drinks, I went lazy and just brewed some tea with tea bags.

I had bought Ceylon tea at a pro-use grocery store — they were super cheap and delicious. and I love it. Looking at my purchase history, I saw that I bought it for 123 yen. It’s too cheap considering it contains 25 packs. Each pack costs less than 5 yen.

It has the official Sri Lanka Tea Board lion logo holding a sword — very trustworthy.

A long time ago, a coworker taught me how to make good tea using tea bags, and ever since then I’ve made it a point not to shake the tea bags.

Before that, I thought shaking the bag was how you got more flavor and color out. It felt like it would be quicker that way.

But apparently, shaking brings out the bitterness and off-flavors.

If you just let the bag sit quietly and then gently remove it, the tea turns out delicious.

Speaking of which, I once saw a video about how a French madam makes iced tea, but I’ve never tried it before.

I only saw it once, so it’s frustrating that I forgot the details.

I wanted to serve it to Grandpa Jill…

A little strong tea like this is a lifesaver when your mouth is stuffed with scones. Yep, the scones baked up well. I think they call it a “wolf’s mouth” when it opens up properly — it’s really satisfying when that happens.

There’s a trick to it — if you cut the dough thin and stack two pieces of dough on top of each other before baking, it opens up like magic.

I don’t do it often though — too much work.

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